E-Service Quality: An Empirical Investigation

This study examines seven dimensions pertinent to e-service quality using 225 respondents conducted in Klang Valley. Results reveal that the efficiency of e-service quality mainly depends on the consumer's perception of the efficiency (which offers speedy and reliable responses) and trustworthiness of the e-service provider (which offers assurance of protection, security of the users' identity and personal information), and is not reliant on offers of convenience and personalization. Other than formulating policies and operating procedures based on customer needs, Websites should be well organized with succinct up-to-date, in-depth information and instruction because these are physical evidence of efficiency and trustworthiness.     

Understanding the user satisfaction and loyalty of customer service chatbots

The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot is emerging as a significant corporate customer-facing application, potentially increasin customer service efficiency while reducing costs. However, little work has sought to assess the quality of service they provide consumers. This study applies the e-service quality by incorporating conversational AI quality to predict users' satisfaction and loyalty to customer service chatbots. The proposed model was empirically evaluated using survey data collected from 219 users responding about their perceptions of customer service chatbots. The findings indicate that AI chatbot service recovery quality and AI chatbot conversational quality significantly influence user satisfaction. On the other hand, core AI chatbot service quality and satisfaction significantly influenced chatbot user loyalty. This study contributes to researchers and practitioners by proposing and evaluating a more comprehensive chatbot e-service quality that combines both fundamental (core service and service recovery qualities) and human-like (conversational quality) aspects of e-service. The results are of value in devising future AI chatbot services and related strategies.     

Customer-perceived value and loyalty: how do key service quality dimensions matter in the context of B2C e-commerce?

This paper develops a research model to examine the effect of e-service quality dimensions on customer-perceived value and customer loyalty. Based on a survey of 235 online customers, we identify five key e-service quality dimensions: care, reliability, products portfolio, ease of use, and security. Our empirical results show that all the five dimensions have significant and positive impacts on customer-perceived value which, in turn, increases customer loyalty. We further examine the mediating role of customer-perceived value in the relationship between each e-service quality and customer loyalty. The results suggest that customer-perceived value plays a partially mediating role in the effect of ease of use, care, product portfolio, and reliability on customer loyalty, and a fully mediating role in the relationship between security and customer loyalty. Managers may be in a position to benefit by employing the model presented in this study in an effort to improve service performance and, hence, retain customers.     

Loyalty toward online food delivery service: the role of e-service quality and food quality

This study assesses the direct influence of food quality and e-service quality on customer loyalty toward online food delivery (OFD) service and its indirect influence through the mediation of customer satisfaction and perceived value. This study uses a survey of 405 OFD service customers from Bandung, Indonesia. By applying variance-based partial least squares to evaluate the proposed model, this study confirms the direct effect of food quality on online loyalty, but not e-service quality. Further, this study discloses the partial mediation role of customer satisfaction and perceived value on the relationship between both food quality and e-service quality on online loyalty toward OFD services.     

基于熵权法的e-服务质量评价方法研究

根据传统环境下的SERVQUAL模型、技术采用模型和自服务技术理论,识别出了e-服务质量的决定因素,从可靠性、易用性、安全性、客户关怀和信任等五方面建立了开放式的、评价e-服务质量的指标体系。为了克服传统测评中各指标权重确定方法的局限性,做到静态赋权与动态赋权相结合,借助于“熵”的概念,对用AHP法所确定的初始评价指标权重进行调整,增强了评价的合理性和科学性。应用实例表明,调整后的权重能更准确地反应实际情况。结论可促进企业e-服务质量发展的科学化和规范化的进程。     

Examining E-Commerce Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: An Integrated Quality-Risk-Value Perspective

Because of the inherently virtual nature of online environments, maintaining customer loyalty on business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce websites is a challenging task. Although there have been many e-commerce studies that investigate customer loyalty in various B2C contexts, none of them have examined loyalty by simultaneously adopting quality-, risk-, and value-driven perspectives. This study integrates the quality-satisfaction-loyalty paradigm and the extrinsic cue-quality-risk-value chain to develop a theoretical model of customer loyalty that is based on an integrated quality-risk-value perspective. Data collected from 542 experienced online shoppers are used to validate the theoretical research model. Additionally, the mediation effects of perceived e-service quality, perceived risk, perceived value, and satisfaction on the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and loyalty in B2C websites are validated using rigorous statistical methods. As hypothesized, the findings indicate that both positive and negative eWOM significantly influence perceived e-service quality and perceived risk and, in turn, significantly affect perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty via the mediation of perceived e-service quality and risk. This study substantially enriches our understanding of the success of B2C websites by highlighting how the sequential causal relationships among key extrinsic cues, quality, risk, and value can strongly influence customer satisfaction and loyalty on these websites. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

What factors determine e-satisfaction and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing?

Evidently, the Internet has resulted in a fundamental shift in retailing practice, creating a shift in both consumer and business behavior, which has been compared to that of the Industrial Revolution. The purpose of this paper is to analyze customer satisfaction in e-commerce market. In particular, we determine the factors that affect customer e-satisfaction and the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer spending in e-commerce retailing. We focus on how American based e-commerce firms are impacted by these developments and how marketing practices have reflected the developing e-commerce situation. The results show that customer satisfaction does have an impact on consumer spending in American based e-commerce retailers. Further, the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer spending is positive, where higher e-satisfaction results in more spending in e-commerce. The results also show that there is a direct relationship among e-service quality, e- satisfaction and e-loyalty in terms of online spending by consumers. However, the analysis shows that e-commerce still faces challenges compared with traditional offline retailers since customers cannot feel and try the products, and may end up choosing the products that they do not want.     

Antecedents of Perceived Quality in the Context of Internet Retail Stores

This study investigates specific antecedents of perceived service quality in the Internet environment for trust to a retail store, experience with e-commerce, Internet familiarity, excitement with e-commerce, extent of using e-commerce, frequency of purchases from a company, in addition to exploring the reasons for shopping on line: such as price discounts, convenience, product availability, and purchase conditions. The results indicate that perceived e-service quality is comprised of four key dimensions: information, user friendliness, interaction / adaptation and aesthetics. Moreover, the study reveals that different dimensions of perceived e-service quality are influenced by diverse antecedents. For instance, whilst customer trust to a company influences all four dimensions, Internet familiarity has an impact solely on user friendliness. This picture remained when the type of store, either pure dot. com versus hybrid retailer, was tested as a moderator variable. Implications for practice, the limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Electronic and in-person service quality of hybrid services

The service industries have experienced dramatic changes in service delivery format because of fast-paced innovation in information technology. Hybrid services involve service deliveries through conventional and technology-enabled environments, each of which is complementary and non-interchangeable. However, limited research has examined consumer behavior in response to a series of relevant service episodes in different channels at different points in time. In other words, how customers perceive service quality at each service encounter and how the cumulative effect of these perceptions influences customers’ overall service value assessment and satisfaction remain unclear. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the sequential influence of e-service quality on in-person service quality in a hybrid service format in which interpersonal and computer-mediated services coexist but at different points in time. Empirical analysis shows that e-service quality directly and positively affects in-person service quality, which fully mediates the effects of e-service quality on perceived value and customer satisfaction. The sequence of service encounters matters because in-person service quality perception has a stronger effect than e-service quality on customer metrics. Cumulative quality perceptions significantly influence perceived value and overall customer satisfaction. Theoretical and managerial implications are presented in the discussion.     

Attribute Perceptions,Customer Satisfaction and Intention to Recommend E-Services

Academic research has focused on the quality perceptions that drive customer satisfaction as the key to achieving e-service success. This paper develops a process-based model that relates perceptions of managerially actionable site characteristics to online satisfaction, which mediates the effects of site characteristics on intention to recommend e-services. A unique data set provided by Web Mystery Shoppers International Inc. (webmysteryshoppers.com), a market research supplier, enables the model to be refined using data from samples of responses to each of the competitive websites for one financial service, and then to be tested using similar data for another financial e-service and then for a travel e-service. The model, which accounts for most of the variance in online satisfaction and online intention to recommend in the fitted data, is largely confirmed on cross validation. Process evaluations and satisfaction mediate the effects of actionable website characteristics on intention to recommend e-services.     

Developing e-service quality scales: A literature review

This study reviews the literature on e-service quality (e-SQ), with an emphasis on the methodological issues involved in developing measurement scales and issues related to the dimensionality of the e-SQ construct. We selected numerous studies on e-SQ from well-known databases and subjected them to a thorough content analysis. The review shows that dimensions of e-service quality tend to be contingent on the service industry. Despite the common dimensions often used in evaluating e-SQ, regardless of the type of service on the internet (‘reliability/fulfilment’, ‘responsiveness’, ‘web design’, ‘ease of use/usability’, ‘privacy/security’, and ‘information quality/benefit’), other dimensions are specific to e-service contexts. The study also identifies several conceptual and methodological limitations associated with developing e-SQ measurement such as the lack of a rigorous validation process, the problematic sample size and composition, the focus on functional aspects, and the use of a data-driven approach. This is the first study to undertake an extensive literature review of research on the development of e-SQ scales. The findings should be valuable to academics and practitioners alike.     

Organizational Learning and CRM Success: A Model for Linking Organizational Practices,Customer Data Quality,and Performance

A high quality customer database is a cornerstone of successful interactive marketing strategies and tactics. Based on the notion that customer data quality is not only a technical but also an organizational problem, this study develops and tests an organizational learning framework of the relationship between organizational processes, customer data quality and firm performance. The findings show that high quality customer data impact both customer and business performance and that the most important driver of customer data quality comes from the executive suite. A large portion of the impact of organizational culture on performance is mediated by customer data quality and data sharing. The results support the presence of a hierarchy of effects for enhancing data quality that runs from organizational learning (committed to a shared vision for CRM data), to cross-functional learning (marketing/IT cooperation, marketing/IT integration) to functional learning (data sharing).     

Critical success factors for e-commerce entrepreneurship: an empirical study of Thailand

The present study focuses on the relationships between entrepreneurial characteristics (achievement orientation, risk taking propensity, locus of control, and networking), e-service business factors (reliability, responsiveness, ease of use, and self-service), governmental support, and the success of e-commerce entrepreneurs. Results confirm that the achievement orientation and locus of control of founders and business emphasis on reliability and ease of use functions of e-service quality are positively related to the success of e-commerce entrepreneurial ventures in Thailand. Founder risk taking and networking, e-service responsiveness and self-service, and governmental support are found to be non-significant.      

The customer satisfaction–loyalty relation in an interactive e-service setting: The mediators

This study aims to examine the relation between customer satisfaction and loyalty through the introduction of commitment, trust, involvement and perceived value as mediators in the e-service context. An online consumer survey on selected web auction sites was used for the data collection. The findings suggest that customer satisfaction is an essential ingredient for service loyalty, but that mediators exist between satisfaction and loyalty. Commitment, trust and involvement are each proven to be partial mediators between satisfaction and loyalty, while perceived value is proven to be a complete mediator. The results have implications for the retention of satisfied customers in an interactive e-service setting.     

The influence of satisfaction on customer retention in mobile phone market

This study examines the determinants of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the Peruvian mobile phone market. Based in a survey to 1259 customers, Multinomial Logit and GSEM estimations show how determinants of customer satisfaction can be assessed when satisfaction is measured through ordered categorical data. The results confirm that in mobile phone market Customer Satisfaction influences strongly on Customer Loyalty, and in turn Loyalty is an important determinant of Customer Retention. In contrast with previous literature, this study identified the differentiated influence of diverse factors on positive and negative customer satisfaction categories. Indeed while results show that quality of service assessments made by customers had a significant impact on both negative and positive customer satisfaction categories; assessments of other service attributes like customer care, information on tariffs and plans and billing clarity, only showed a significant statistical influence on positive categories of customer satisfaction. Similar asymmetrical results were found with regard to other economic, socioeconomic and geographical determinants of customer decisions. As well, an analog effect is also observed in the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty, where only positive satisfaction assessments helps to explain the loyalty of users. Finally, results show that while satisfaction can be identified as a powerful cause of CR, switching barriers did not deter more demanding customers to switch to alternative carriers, suggesting that recent pro-competition regulatory reforms implemented in Peru contributed to reduce these barriers to competition in mobile markets.     

Does relationship quality matter in e-services? A comparison of online and offline retailing

The quality of the relationship between customers and service firms has been found to be a major driver of customer loyalty in traditional (i.e., offline) service contexts. The increasing use of electronic services, or e-services, raises questions concerning the extent to which the relationship quality-customer loyalty link holds in an e-service context. Based on an extended model of relationship quality and by applying the social information processing perspective, this research tests the relevance of relationship quality for online relationships and explores differences of the relationship quality-loyalty link between online and offline retailers. To test the model, a large-scale study is conducted on both online and offline relationships for two service contexts (media and travel retailing). Using multi-group structural equation modeling, the authors identify differences between the online and offline environment in both service contexts. Results show that (1) relationship quality is similarly important for retaining customers online and offline and (2) differences in the impact of relationship-quality dimensions strongly depends on the service context.     

On Closeness to the Customer in Industrial Markets

ABSTRACT

Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of academic and practitioner interest in the way companies interact with their customers. While there has been considerable scientific progress in the understanding of market orientation and buyer-seller relationships, limited attention has been given to the concept of closeness to the customer. Specifically, there has been no valid measure of the construct as a whole. This paper reports the development of a valid 28-item measure (called CLOSCUS) for assessing industrial firms' closeness to the customer. The development of the scale is based on a literature review, field interviews as well as statistical analyses of two independent samples from different sides of the buyer-seller dyad. Results indicate that seven factors underlie the 28 items. These are related to product, service, and process quality (two factors), flexibility in dealing with customers (one factor), and the way of interacting with customers (four factors), respectively. Based on the CLOSCUS scale, closeness to the customer is shown to impact on a customer's commitment, trust, and satisfaction. It is also demonstrated that closeness to the customer is both conceptually and empirically distinct from market orientation which contradicts some marketing researchers' prior statements. The paper concludes with some experiences from applications of the scale in a number of German companies.     

The effect of multi-channel service quality on mobile customer loyalty in an online-and-mobile retail context

The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of multi-channel service quality on mobile customer loyalty in the context of online-and-mobile retailing. A research model is proposed based on previous service quality literature. Data collected from 102 respondents in Taiwan are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that tangibility, responsiveness, and empathy in electronic service (e-service) affect mobile service (m-service) customer loyalty both directly and indirectly through their m-service counterparts. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for multi-channel retailing management.     

Performance-only measures vs. performance-expectation measures of service quality

There is a long debate over the superiority of performance-only measures vs. performance-expectation measures of service quality. This paper analytically derives the superiority conditions of the measures in predicting customer satisfaction. The conditions show that the superiority of the measures is determined by two factors. One is the strengths of linkages between the constructs (expectation, performance, and customer satisfaction) in the customer satisfaction formation process, and the other is customer heterogeneity in the evaluation of constructs in the process. The source of customer heterogeneity implies that the superiority is affected by the procedure for measuring service quality because the degree of customer heterogeneity in the evaluation of perceived and expected service quality may vary according to the measurement procedure.     

The impact of mood on customer behavior: Staff mood and environmental factors

This review looks at the effect of staff/server mood on customer/client mood and various outcome behaviours such as such as product and service evaluation. It also looks at the role of other stimulus factors such as scent, sound and light on customer affect and cognitions and thence the effects on purchase behaviours. Based on the service-profit chain model, this review considers the scattered research which empirically demonstrates the impact of staff mood upon customer mood and behaviour. The review then goes on to discuss the various ways in which a customer's mood influences their buying behaviour, as well as considering why and when this occurs. Other physical factors that influence customer mood are also considered. Implications for the management of sales staff and sales environments are considered.